Sharon rules out Iran military action - for now
Reuters
Date: 04-21-05
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon voiced concern on Thursday that the world was growing accustomed to the idea Iran would build a nuclear bomb but said the time was not ripe for military action to stop it.
"Ultimately, I don't think there will be any alternative but to bring (Iran) to the U.N. Security Council and to take diplomatic and economic steps as pressure to stop this (nuclear effort)," Sharon told Israel Radio.
"I am troubled by the fact -- we hear this perhaps more in Europe than in the United States -- that the world is beginning to grow accustomed to the idea that the day will come and Iran will be a member of the nuclear weapons club," he said.
"This is particularly troubling, mainly because we are aware of Iran's threats against Israel. It is a country where even the so-called moderates speak of a national goal of destroying Israel and the Jewish people."
Asked whether Israel would consider bombing Iran nuclear facilities, Sharon said: "I don't think this is the stage for military operations. I think the stage now is one of economic, diplomatic pressure on Iran."
Widely believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, Israel sent jets to bomb the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osiraq in 1981.
Iran says it has no interest in the bomb and wants nuclear power plants to meet booming demand for electricity.
It has frozen its uranium enrichment programme but refuses to relinquish permanently what it sees as a sovereign right to produce low-enriched fuel for nuclear power plants.
In talks with U.S. President George W. Bush in Texas last week, Sharon presented Israeli intelligence information on Iran's nuclear programme.
Israeli officials said he told Bush that Iran would soon reach a technological point of no-return in efforts to build a bomb.
Calling on the United States "to stand at the head of an international coalition" to stop Iran, Sharon also spoke in the radio interview of the possible prospect of Iranians rising up against their government.
"But for a political upheaval to occur, there must be pressure on Iran," said Sharon.
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